Wiz Mohawks and Fades

As you no doubt realize by now, yesterday's morning hair hijinks got a lot hijinkier by the evening. Andray Blatche came in the locker room first, with the early-season Mohawk back where it belonged.

"I was ballin' in my Mohawk," Blatche explained. "We all getting ready to go to war, man. White Out. It's like milk out there; I'm like a cat. I want some milk....I'm telling you, we're ready for war, man. White out. Ride together, die together. Bad boys for life. I'm telling you, I was BORN for this."

My colleague Jamie Mottram put it best; the Wiz looked at their two-game deficit, their Game 2 embarrassment, and instead of getting out the straitjackets, they doubled down on their wackiness. Playing like doo? Get a dang haircut.

And so two lockers down, here was DeShawn Stevenson. Same mohawk. Why now? Why not for Game 1, in Cleveland?

"Sometimes you think of things late," Stevenson said. "And I wanted to do it in front of my home crowd. If I did it out there, man, they'd heckle me till I don't know when. I know my fans is gonna have my back, like a pink Cadillac, you dig me?"

Sure. Oleksiy Pecherov was thus surrounded by mohawked men on both sides of his locker. Was he considering the 'do? "Later," he said, "when I go back to Ukraine."

Here came Brendan Haywood, bald as ever. Mohawk thoughts?

"I ain't getting on no plane, Hannibal!" he said, sending a cultural reference way over my head. Mr. T., I guess. "I used to love 'The A-Team,' man, that was my show," he said.

In one final nod to the '80s, Young came back into the locker room an hour before tip-off, two lines shaved into his temple. Time for a quick trip to the Cavs locker room for some hair reaction.

Daniel Gibson said he's spent his whole life getting designs shaved in his head, often holiday-specific (i.e. clovers for St. Patrick's Day). Last night, he had a slightly grown-over Texas star.

"You play the same regardless; its just style," he said, foolishly.

Joe Smith agreed, laughing at the Wizards stylings. "Is that supposed to be inspiration?" he asked. "We'll see if it works."

Damon Jones said he was too old for a fade or designs, but he noted that he himself has worn a Mohawk.

"I'm a trend-setter, period," he said. "I did it before everybody."

I asked Jones whether these haircuts might change the buzz surrounding this series.

"That has nothing to do with basketball," he said, "but it's definitely gonna fill your column."

I should point out that Caron Butler said he went with "Tough Juice" instead of "Tuff Juice" so that people wouldn't think he can't spell.

"I love it, and it's spelled the way I want it to be spelled," wife Andrea said of the hair. "Not an every-day thing, though. Hopefully that's something to get him going. I don't know."

I guess it did work out for them. I had 8 of my team's 72 points and I fouled out. More people might actually notice my friend Damon's mohawks if he actually got in games before they were 4th quarter blowout wins/losses.